Twitter Is a Helluva Lot Better Than It’s Given Credit For

It's deeply flawed. But most of the problems are user error.

Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash

Imagine a supergiant sewage-burning star violently collapsing into a black brown hole, and you’ll begin to get a rough picture of how society views Twitter. People of every political persuasion, every walk of life, and every stage of connectivity — from Facebook Boomers who barely understand what Twitter is, to Twitter’s most addicted junkies — regard the platform as pure, unmitigated poison, tantamount to a social opioid epidemic.

To be sure, Twitter has no shortage of problems, from the way it incentivizes people to be hyperbolic, melodramatic, and tribal, to the ease with which it facilitates the spread of total horseshit, to the ways it contributes to online shaming, cyberbullying, and cancel culture. We’ve all complained about Twitter, myself included. But it’s not all bad. In fact, in more ways than one, it’s an invaluable tool, if used the right way. Twitter isn’t what sucks — we are.

Twitter gives a voice to anyone with a smartphone or internet access. It removes gatekeeping barriers that have so long constrained the limits of discourse as well as who can participate in it. It also lets everyday folks publicly interface directly with famous or influential people. If you think public figures are out of touch with Twitter, what would an alternate reality look like where their only interaction with the public was through fan or hate mail? Twitter, like the web more generally, helps to de-monopolize information, so that no one societal clique or set can dominate the conversation.

No doubt, giving everyone a voice has its downsides. Plato wrote nearly 2,400 years ago in The Republic that “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” Fools have always outnumbered wise people, and always will. There will always be charlatans and hacks who find a way to build followings through manipulation, deceit, or performance. But there will also always be interesting, talented, and thoughtful people who, through lack of connections or unfortunate happenstance, have no access to contribute to the traditional avenues of information. Twitter helps give a voice to such people who would otherwise languish in obscurity. It is, on this score, an engine of democracy and upward social mobility. There are many brilliant artists, activists, writers, scholars, and public intellectuals whose careers would not have taken off without social media in general, and Twitter in particular. In the grand utilitarian calculus, don’t forget to factor them in.

I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss my own story. Twitter has helped me enormously, in ways big and small. I’ve gotten retweets and replies from famous people I greatly admire who I’d never otherwise have interacted with. I’ve been interviewed by a New York Times reporter based on a thread of mine he found interesting. I’ve been sent advance copies of books from folks who considered me influential.

Twitter was where I crossed paths in 2019 with Rio Veradonir, the Editor of Queer Majority. We were both enthusiastic Andrew Yang supporters. He had me on his podcast, later commissioned me to write for him, and soon after hired me as a Contributing Editor and then Managing Editor. Without Twitter (and Andrew Yang), none of that happens. Without Twitter, many of you wouldn’t be reading these words, or would never have heard of me. I’m sure my critics would find that no great loss, but a theme I have endeavored to harp on in my writing is not only criticism of what’s wrong, but appreciation for what’s good. And Twitter has been very good to me. Because I know how to properly use it.

Twitter is not a community. Twitter is not a home. Twitter is not a town square. It’s not a hangout or a clubhouse. It’s a tool. And if you don’t understand how to use it, you will at best be wasting your time, and at worst, you’ll be miserable and contribute to the immiseration of others. A power saw is a useful tool. But not for brushing your teeth.

Twitter is a highly customizable and convenient way to consume information, share content, and network. This, of course, is not how most people use it. They variously use Twitter as a public diary for airing grievances; a cafeteria to start or join in food fights and dogpiles; a forum for political activism; or a digital church to evangelize, preach, and compare clothing for social points. Remember the motherly advice from your youth. Just because everyone else wants to jump off of a bridge doesn’t mean you should too. Nor does it mean that the bridge has no other uses other than a springboard into the abyss.

Most people on Twitter appear to be dumber, pettier, meaner, more tribal, one-dimensional versions of themselves. That’s one way to look at it. Another is that perhaps that’s who these folks truly are, and that Twitter merely places a megaphone to their lips, the better for them to tell on themselves. The results are depressing — but this is information I would rather have. We have limited time and bandwidth in life. Any mechanism that helps me figure out who is too unreasonable, unprincipled, unhinged, or partisan to take seriously is saving me precious time and providing a valuable service. In “Homo Deus” (2015), Yuval Noah Harari writes that “In ancient times, having power meant access to data. Today having power means knowing what to ignore.”

Twitter’s algorithms should be made less manipulative and more prosocial, but they aren’t forcing people to act any which way — they are exposing weak-minded fools. I’ve written at length about strategies to improve social media. A large portion of what’s wrong, however, can be attributed to user error. If you lack the mental discipline to use Twitter strictly as a tool — if you find yourself on the platform for hours upon hours every day, constantly being sucked down rabbit holes or into vicious fights, you probably shouldn’t be on social media at all. And frankly, you almost certainly have some unhealthy tendencies that are likely to cause trouble in other areas of life, and you should address those.

It is more than fair to say that the top fifth of Twitter’s most active users would benefit from using the platform less. But that’s not the same thing as saying we’d be better off if Twitter, or social media in general, didn’t exist. If you drink too much alcohol too often, it’s reasonable to say it would be better if you drank less. But that isn’t necessarily to say that no one should ever drink, or that a world where alcohol was never discovered would be a better one.

Twitter, as the popular refrain goes, isn’t real life. But Twitter is, at bottom, raw speech — and performativity doesn’t change that. To hate Twitter is tacitly to hate human expression, regardless of the self-selection of those who choose to use it. The real problem with Twitter isn’t right or left. It’s not big tech or Elon Musk. The real problem with Twitter is staring at you in the mirror. But with a simple shift of perspective and behavior, it can be an asset.

See also: “How To Deal With Online Mobs”

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